AUGUST 2020 ISSUE NO. 390

Indigenous Technology as a Strategic Moat for India

NISHA HOLLA

ABSTRACT Technology is vital to enabling accelerated socio-economic growth, effective governance, and relief delivery at scale. Many economies are adopting and developing technology-first frameworks to strengthen their population’s social welfare net, and support economic growth. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed both the challenges and opportunities in India that can be addressed and driven by multidimensional technology frameworks. With the rebalancing of the world order post-COVID-19, the Indian government must also relentlessly pursue the development of world-class indigenous technologies in multiple sectors as a native full-stack advantage for its citizens. India can more deterministically secure its digital and material interests with such a strategic moat in place.

Attribution: Nisha Holla, “Indigenous Technology as a Strategic Moat for India,” ORF Issue Brief No. 390, August 2020, Observer Research Foundation.

Observer Research Foundation (ORF) is a public policy think tank that aims to influence the formulation of policies for building a strong and prosperous India. ORF pursues these goals by providing informed analyses and in-depth research, and organising events that serve as platforms for stimulating and productive discussions.

ISBN 978-93-90159-76-5 © 2020 Observer Research Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, archived, retained or transmitted through print, speech or electronic media without prior written approval from ORF. Indigenous Technology as a Strategic Moat for India

INTRODUCTION relief response delivery; enhancing private sector capabilities; and unlocking future Technology has enabled India to respond to opportunities to deepen the moat. the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that were not even conceivable as recently as a decade ago. TECHNOLOGIES FOR GOVERNANCE The country has pioneered the development AND RELIEF RESPONSE DELIVERY of digital public goods (DPG) built as partnerships between the government and India Stack at Work private industry.1 Many of its DPGs are open- APIa development exercises with significant India Stack is one of the leapfrog-enablement volunteer participation2 that are accelerating technology platforms through which the India’s achievement of its Sustainable country is accelerating its ease of doing 4 Development Goals.3 They exemplify the business and financial inclusion goals. Amidst Indian private sector’s civism, its readiness to the COVID-pandemic, personal interaction to work with the government, especially in times transact and conduct business has become like the current pandemic, to deliver world- life-threatening, and further made difficult by class platforms for socio-economic growth. the national and various regional lockdowns. Increasingly, this model is defining India’s However, life has had to go on – citizens had to governance and relief delivery. pay power and water bills, pay for food, groceries, medicines and more, but could not India has spent a decade validating this risk transacting in person using cash. Through novel public-private partnership (PPP) model. India Stack’s Bill Pay, UPI, and other services, The value proposition of using leapfrog the entire country was ready to transact technology to eradicate poverty, nurture reliably over these national protocols and development via inclusive growth, and services. accelerate India’s trajectory towards a middle- With India Stack and the JAM trinity – Jan income economy is obvious. Further, the Dhan, Aadhar, Mobile – the country has country faces a generational opportunity in built vast databases of Aadhar-verified the post-COVID-19 new normal to re- beneficiaries for most large-scale government establish itself in a realigning global order. schemes. These programmes include the T he development of indigenous Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (80 million t e c h n o l o g i c a l c a p a b i l i t i e s a s a beneficiaries being given free LPG cylinders multidimensional moat is a reliable strategy for smoke-free cooking5); the Pradhan Mantri that will yield dual-use dividends – both in a Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (minimum pandemic and in normal times. There are three income support for 100 million registered objectives with which the country must farmers6); and the Mahatma Gandhi National prioritise technology: for governance and R u ra l E m ploy me nt G u a ra nte e A c t a Open-APIs or Application Programming Interfaces are publicly published software interfaces that allow developers programmatic access to a proprietary application or software system. There are usually minimal and standard restrictions on the use of such interfaces, such as Fair Use compliances and enterprise verification requirements.

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(MGNREGA – rural employment guarantee amounting to a minimum 15-day timeframe with 136 million registered and 81.7 million between the allocation of benefits and cash-in- active7). Unlike during the first six decades of bank – in India, it was near-instantaneous. Independent India, there is now verifiable information owing to Aadhar and the Direct This is a paradigm shift in governmental Benefit Transfer (DBT) digital logs. The DBT- programme delivery that brings radical databases framework could prove valuable in transparency and accountability throughout moving away from India’s legacy subsidy the implementation stack. The tech- system, which was ridden with leakages and supported approach helps the administration 8,9 ensure that the most deserving beneficiaries duplicate payments. are supported, and reduces leakages and During the COVID-19 lockdown in inefficiencies. Most importantly, it makes particular, when millions of Indians were government programmes measurable and suddenly cut off from their daily employment auditable, and removes the otherwise wages, these databases of ID-verified insurmountable physical friction in support beneficiaries, combined with DBT enabled delivery. one of the world’s most substantial volumes of real-time relief delivery.10 Aarogya Sethu and the Government- Citizen Engagement Revolution Direct Benefit Transfers At a time when over a billion people in India One of the most striking resultant felt unsafe leaving their homes, uncertain of programmes built on India Stack is the where and when they could contract the virus, country’s national-scale DBT program. To technology has made possible the world’s date, INR 11.6 trillion worth of benefits have most massive organic exercise in contact been disbursed through DBT, leading to tracing and syndromic mapping, thanks to savings of INR 1.7 trillion, by cutting out Aarogya Sethu (AS). It is a comprehensive middlemen inefficiencies and leakages – which tool made available to Indian citizens to map amounts to nearly one percent of the country’s their health status periodically and monitor Gross Domestic Product (GDP).11 During the the spread of the infection in their COVID-19 lockdown alone, INR 654.5 billion neighbourhoods. This shift in the attitude of had been transferred to the accounts of 420 Indian citizens, their willingness to use an app million ID-verified beneficiaries by June 19.12 to help decide their daily routines is The ready availability of databases of families significant. It shows how friction-less citizen living below poverty line, women Jan Dhan participation can support a government’s account holders, farmers and rural workers, actions to secure the national health interest. widows, people with disabilities, and other disadvantaged groups, built over the last six AS took only 13 days to reach 50 million years, was a boon to India in these trying downloads, breaking Pokémon Go’s world 13 times. While countries like the US mailed record of 19 days. By June 7, AS had over 120 14 millions of cheques that people had to cash in – million downloads – with the pandemic

ORF ISSUE BRIEF No. 390 l AUGUST 2020 3 Indigenous Technology as a Strategic Moat for India running its course, more people are signing up Bharat Health Stack (BHS) every day. According to government officials, the app has already helped generate The proposed BHS operating on the India information about 700 potential hotspots and Stack engine can be a game changer for Indian has alerted over 140,000 app users, via healthcare delivery. The COVID-19 pandemic Bluetooth-enabled contact tracing, about has made it apparent that India does not have possible risk of infection due to proximity to a collaborative platform for inter-hospital and infected patients.15 The World Bank has hospital-government information exchange. 16 Real-time data on bed vacancies, number of praised India’s contact-tracing effort and COVID-19 patients, dynamic status updates, many countries are launching similar apps in news on segments of patients (critical, severe, their territories.17 India must now build on mild or asymptomatic), and data on vacant this achievement and explore ways of making isolation wards is crucial to saving lives. BHS is the AS framework a permanent part of the proposed as a multi-layered public-goods strategic moat. infrastructure on which governments and It could, for example, help break 70 years of health providers can deploy dedicated apps 18 apathetic government-citizen engagement. and platforms. The architecture will enable Indeed, it is the most extensive population information symmetry on aggregate grouping and mass study that India has geo- dimensions such as bed vacancies, infection mapped. As the pandemic passes and loads, ambulance and emergency response normalcy resumes, the government can staff availability, critical medicines and explore using the AS framework to empower devices availability, and more, without people to log other civic issues with a geo-tag exposing identifiable patient information. on the platform. The many problems Indians Integrating BHS with Ayushmann Bharat and face every day – potholes on roads, open drains other health schemes can accelerate the without a utility hole cover, mismatch in bus country’s progress towards universal health and Metro coverage routes, breaks in coverage and distributed portability of broadband connectivity at the local panchayat, services. This will be a high-effort intensive lack of primary care facilities within a 10-km exercise, but one that can help the country radius – can be logged onto the framework, leapfrog its healthcare infrastructure to the and maintenance/improvements can be levels required to serve the population prioritised based on the number of complaints through an inclusive and efficient system. on a particular issue. Accountability at all governance levels can be tracked dynamically OTHER VITAL TECHNOLOGY and monitored by both the highest levels of CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE PRIVATE the democratic system and by citizens via a SECTOR centralised, transparent dashboard. This will assign entirely new meaning to citizens’ voice The Indian private sector has continuously and participation, and the world’s largest contributed to national wellbeing, especially democracy can also become its most involved in times of crisis. During the COVID-19 one. lockdown, India Inc. found many new ways of

4 ORF ISSUE BRIEF No. 390 l AUGUST 2020 Indigenous Technology as a Strategic Moat for India helping the government tackle the crisis. Like Payment Gateways their counterparts in the US and other countries, automobile companies like Tata With the building of the underlying and Mahindra repurposed their production instantaneous payments architecture of plants to augment ventilator and respiratory Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) and aid manufacturing. Garment manufacturers United Payments Interface (UPI) through a lent a hand in ramping up production of N95 PPP, Indian citizens can now pull out their masks and personal protective equipment phones to make six-second money transfers (PPE) from nearly zero to such large volumes 24 hours a day using payments companies that within three months India had export such as PayTM, PhonePe and others. Small surpluses. Several vaccine manufacturers are and Medium Enterprise (SME)-focused working with the Indian Council of Medical banking platforms like Open have helped Research (ICMR) to accelerate early vaccine small business owners manage their financial candidates into human trials. With these self- operations remotely. These mobile apps reliance oriented initiatives, India seems to designed by private enterprise have enabled have overcome its former unviable people to make payments for essentials and dependence on global supply chains. It is utilities without stepping out of their home crucial to operationalise this further and make during the lockdown. India self-reliant for critical materials. Healthcare Management and Telemedicine There are many unique ways India Inc. and t h e g r o w i n g s t a r t - u p e c o s y s t e m India’s deficit in healthcare infrastructure and complemented the public sector in the fight trained medical staff became all too apparent against COVID-19: during the pandemic. By World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, India needs a E-commerce minimum of 600,000 more doctors and 2 million more nurses to provide adequate At a time of pandemic-risk and restricted medical care to its large population.20 citizen movement, the utility of e-commerce Particularly during COVID-19, when medical has never been more apparent. People staff are catching the virus themselves and increasingly look to e-commerce for every need need time off to convalesce, healthcare – food, groceries, medicines, body care and management and digital platforms are often hygiene products, and even to send parcels the only way to widen reach and monitor across the city. India’s decadal e-commerce patients. Compelling value propositions have boom had helped map out delivery routes and risen out of this trying situation. set up the required digital infrastructure at scale before the pandemic hit. When the For example, Dozee is a medical-grade contact restrictions were put in place, e- contactless sensor that can be placed under commerce giants moved to contactless delivery, any mattress to monitor the patient, including standardised supply chains and maximised remotely, if required. With these technologies delivery routes through batched dispatches.19 enabling step-down intensive care units (ICUs)

ORF ISSUE BRIEF No. 390 l AUGUST 2020 5 Indigenous Technology as a Strategic Moat for India of the necessary fidelity and reliability at a start-ups like MyLab, CoSara, Module fraction of the cost of a full ICU set-up, medical Innovation and Huwel,23 among others, response efforts are expanding patient quickly turned to developing high-quality yet capacity into non-hospital environments and low-cost COVID-19 diagnostic kits. Today, keeping medical staff safer by enabling no- there are around 25 high-integrity kit designs contact monitoring.21 It is imperative for India made in India for India. With this, the value to quickly scale and integrate such emerging proposition for India’s health innovation technologies into the mainstream to aid the segment to play a dominant post-COVID-19 fight against COVID-19. economic role is validated; it needs strategic investment and government aid to scale to its Telemedicine, a nascent industry, found potential. new energy during the lockdown.22 Many hospitals are only serving COVID-19 patients, EXTRAORDINARY OPPORTUNITIES and there is also heightened risk from entering AHEAD one. With increased mobile and data coverage, combined with the e-consultation trend, India India made such a significant leap in the use of can improve access to healthcare and use technology platforms during the COVID-19 technology to leapfrog the physical limitations lockdown that the nation is yet to grasp its full of inadequate built infrastructure. A tele- extent. Many novel opportunities are consultation can help quickly determine how presenting themselves to harness the severe a medical problem is. Simple cases like exponential leap technologies make possible common cold or a muscle sprain can be dealt and thereby build strategic moats for with through an online prescription and a sustainable growth. The following paragraphs follow-up e-consultation – decreasing the describe some examples. need for rural patients to travel unnecessarily. The government must also survey India’s 718 Urban Mobility districts to determine how many lack adequate medical facilities and staff to serve their The pandemic is forcing a relook at urban communities. While there are plans to develop mobility systems. For instance, air pollution the physical infrastructure over four to five levels dropped dramatically during the years, going digital will serve as an effective lockdown, and many are rightly calling for bridge. immediate action to maintain the lowered levels. For this, urban areas require more Diagnostic Kit Design mass-transit options such as the lengthening of Metro networks to service even the In mid-March, when the global demand for outskirts of big cities and a plan to achieve 100 COVID-19 diagnostic kits surged, India percent electric bus fleets. With the flux in the realised how dependent it was on China and global oil economy, this is an excellent time to the global economy for them. The kits plan for reducing dependence on fuel imports, manufactured by US and German companies and incentivise clean energy technology were also exorbitantly priced. Indian health supply chains like electric vehicle (EV)

6 ORF ISSUE BRIEF No. 390 l AUGUST 2020 Indigenous Technology as a Strategic Moat for India components, solar panels for charging national average of INR 135,00025 annually. infrastructure, batteries and new energy- Indian farmers must be empowered to dense materials. It is also opportune to formalise and raise their incomes. It is crucial consider leapfrogging the next set of Metro to remove restrictions on what farmers can tracks into magnetic levitation vehicles that grow and how they utilise their land. Atma have a lower carbon footprint than currently Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan (ANBA) is a used technology, and are ideal for deploying in transformational first step and can catalyse congested spaces, as exemplified by Japan and the mass deregulation of agriculture. Beyond South Korea. ANBA, technology platforms can be used to connect farmers to markets and consumers In the near-term, however, mass transport directly so they can realise near-market prices. like the Metro and buses are nuclei for pandemic spread. As India unlocks slowly, the Over 474 Indian agri-tech companies26 are call for safer and traceable transportation validating the value proposition with demand options is loud and clear. And this is where aggregation delivery models, post-harvest India’s burgeoning two-wheeler last-mile intervention and storage optimisation, price transport start-ups like Yulu and Bounce are forecasting, direct-to-consumer models, data- finding a new wave. To properly maintain backed crop-specific advisory services social distancing without losing out on work covering seeds, fertiliser and irrigation, productivity, their single-passenger on- minimisation of input costs, real-time market demand two-wheelers serve up a unique data intelligence, competitive insurance and proposition. City municipal corporations and financing schemes, and mass market linkages local governments are working with these at a scale that reduces overall costs.27,28,29 companies to install large fleets of such two- wheelers in big cities to provide alternatives to Agri-tech start-ups estimate that the Metro and buses, and even cars. Even post- participating farmers will see a substantial COVID-19, these two-wheelers will continue increase in income, productivity improvements to serve last-mile connectivity, a feature India and waste reduction, and a reduction in input needs more of to make the adoption of mass costs.30,31 They can receive near-instantaneous transit ubiquitous.24 And by maintaining an payments via UPI and Cash on Delivery.32 Agri- EV-first approach here as well, India can tech platforms can also help farmers pursue leapfrog past fossil-fuels and start using more differentiated agri-strategies that minimise EV scooters. one-crop risk and increase the number of income modes. Crucially, agricultural Agri-technology producers, and particularly their next generation, are becoming entrepreneurs driven A survey of per-capita gross value-add in the by technology.33 The access to highly three major sectors – agriculture, industry and customised information via digital agri- services – demonstrates that agricultural platforms is empowering them. With these producers earn the least in the country; on force-multipliers, technology can help render average, approximately one-third of the the agriculture sector self-sufficient and India

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100 percent food-secure. Along with the for Indian app alternatives across segments proposed deregulation measures announced such as media, entertainment, social, mobile under the ANBA, agri-technology could prove a utilities, video, music, regional news content, vital enabler to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra messaging, and more, which should not be Modi’s promise to double farmer income by missed. It must be addressed by more Indian 2022. cloud infrastructure companies that should serve Indian app ecosystem’s development. Cloud Infrastructure This opportunity must drive a full-stack shift to India-first technology solutions. Recent events have made it abundantly clear that India must protect its national security in Through the lockdown, with the ‘work the digital realm as actively as in the physical. from home’ (WFH) trend picking up, it was A significant component of this virtual evident that India’s broadband and cloud security net is the development of cloud facilities were running over-capacity. With the infrastructure so Indian citizens’ data can be ever-strengthening case for moving any localised and protected within national relevant business functions to remote, WFH borders. Countries like the US understand and cloud, this is another clear value that national security is inseparable from proposition for developing native cloud such a move and have mandated cloud infrastructure. With many realising the infrastructure providers like Amazon, benefits of staying out of traffic and increasing Microsoft and Google to provide exclusive productivity in home offices,35 it is necessary and secure digital warehouses like GovCloud to support this encouraging trend with for government-grade data. The Indian infrastructure development support. Given its government must incentivise indigenous large IT industry and tech start-up ecosystem, cloud infrastructure developers to build and coupled with in-depth engineering knowledge maintain both government and citizens’ data. on developing cloud infrastructure, India can This will also answer the increasing calls for quickly become the third-largest global cloud data residency and localisation of Indian ecosystem after the US and China. It can even citizen data on external platforms like build partnerships with other emerging Facebook and Google. That is the only way an economies by providing them low-cost cloud Indian citizen can respond to a data leak infrastructure solutions at scale. legally in a court of law; a recourse that is unavailable if Indian data is in a foreign data Education-tech centre like the US where Indian citizens are legally termed as non-resident aliens. For the first time in most Indians’ lifetimes, going to school and college was not an option The need for native cloud infrastructure during COVID-19. There was a focused shift to and data privacy regulations is even more digital; from dedicated teachers suspending urgent given the government’s recent decision their phones on makeshift tripods to produce to ban Chinese apps in the country.34 The gap videos, to utilising education-tech platforms left in the wake of such a ban is an opportunity to keep children at home engaged and learning

8 ORF ISSUE BRIEF No. 390 l AUGUST 2020 Indigenous Technology as a Strategic Moat for India every day. Globally, there was an upsurge in –especially the long-brewing vulnerability of digital offerings, certification programs, India’s migrant populations. Vast inequalities online graduations and virtual exam in economic growth between the highly- proctoring modalities.36 This serves as a populous low-skilled states of the north and tremendous opportunity to drive up India’s the more developed states of the south have rates of education and skilling.37 resulted in massive internal migration in search of employment. Due to the excess Digital and mobile coverage has increased labour availability, skills development has dramatically over the past decade. The average unfortunately taken a backseat. The COVID- Indian now consumes 11 GB of cellular data 19 crisis has been a battering ram to this 38 per month. Educational offerings have to susceptibility, and there is a great need to find a way to piggyback on this trend. A study solve this problem. of India’s higher education systems shows that regions with the largest young With premier large-scale digital successes populations like Bihar and Rajasthan have the like India Stack, DBT, and Aarogya Sethu lowest college infrastructure coverage.39 under its belt, the government can now utilise Technology and digital platforms are likely to digital platforms to manage the migrant crisis, make physical infrastructure expansion allocating labour across the nation, and largely redundant, while virtual expansion skilling and up-skilling. The National Skill becomes more vital. Digital offerings can Development Corporation already partners enable all three pillars of a world-class with several employment agencies and education system – quality, affordability, and platforms such as Betterplace Solutions across equity of access and opportunity. the country. These platforms can be repurposed for the management of migrants’ India’s fertility rates are falling pretty fast, issues, as well as to designate and train especially in the southern states. While the workers. Union and state governments must country has a large demographic dividend maintain live maps of migration, employment now, India is moving towards a largely ageing availability, and labour distribution, and society over the next five decades40 with develop the capacity to coordinate and gradually shrinking workforce capabilities. It rebalance these levers in the interest of is imperative to work on human capital and citizens and the economy. skills development to maintain higher economic output even as workforce numbers Government-business Interfaces reduce. Technology and digital platforms might be the only way to deliver education and The government has digitally integrated with skilling at the massive scale needed. India’s bottom-of-the-pyramid, as its distribution of subsidy to 800 million people Skilling Revolution and the Migrant Crisis under Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojana during the pandemic demonstrates.41 The With the COVID-19 lockdown, systemic same focus can now include the remaining issues became abundantly apparent population – salaried taxpayers, small and

ORF ISSUE BRIEF No. 390 l AUGUST 2020 9 Indigenous Technology as a Strategic Moat for India large business operators, investors, and so on CONCLUSION – who provide the bulk of India’s economic growth and tax revenues. India needs a Both the public and private sectors have government-business interface that levera ged technolo g ies to achieve cohesively tracks these se gments ’ demonstrably effective results at scale for the documentation and tax-paying history and benefit of India’s 1.38 billion people. The can utilise this in a near-instantaneous tax country can now leverage its technological refund system based on UPI and IMPS. prowess and the unique interplay between public and private participants to secure every Further, with its commitment to aspect of Indian citizens’ lives through a improving ease of doing business in India, the technology-first strategy. Many economies government can utilise digital frameworks to are pursuing technology-backed frameworks simplify the country’s bloated compliance to fortify their citizens’ welfare and drive regime. An analysis by staffing company economic growth. With a rebalancing of the TeamLease shows that the central world order post-COVID-19, the Indian government alone has 25,537 compliances, government must also relentlessly pursue a 677 Acts and 2,282 regulatory requirements.42 national security net as a native full-stack Adding in state government requirements, advantage for citizens. taxpaying citizens and companies have to track 69,233 compliance regimes, 1,536 Acts The suggestions in this brief are not easy to and 6,618 regulatory filings depending on execute and will require the long-term geographical location, and the extent and engagement of multiple stakeholders. With nature of the business. This is a gross overload the adoption of technology comes the ever- on our economic system and needs immediate increasing need to fortify digital security and deregulation. privacy norms, and maintain digital inclusion across all communities. Nonetheless, a Propelling India’s GDP to US$5 trillion by multidimensional technological moat made 2026, and close to US$10 trillion by 2031, will zero-friction across all points of engagement depend on the ability of all the above and transaction is of national value. segments to grow their businesses and Technology is future-oriented and has the investments. Like the US43 and other major exponential advantage of low marginal costs economies, India too must make it easier for and near-infinite scalability - by building and them to operate, and try to eliminate the owning indigenous platforms, India fully existing friction with war-time resolve. secures its digital and material interests.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nisha Holla is a computational physicist and engineer, currently Technology Fellow at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Platforms, where she writes at the intersection of technology, economics and policy.

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ENDNOTES

1. Kaka, Noshir, et al. “Digital India: Technology to Transform a Connected Nation.” McKinsey & Company. McKinsey & Company, June 1, 2020, https://www.mckinsey.com/business- functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/digital-india-technology-to-transform-a-connected- nation.

2. K Giriprakash, “Getting India’s Digital Frame to Stack Up,” BusinessLine, May 18, 2020, https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blchangemakers/getting-indias-digital-frame- to-stack-up/article31020908.ece.

3. PTI, “Digital Technology in India: UN Panel Lauds India’s Digital Initiatives for Economic Inclusion,” , June 13, 2019, https://economictimes.india times.com/ news/economy/finance/un-panel-lauds-indias-digital-initiatives-for-economic-inclusion/ articleshow/69769783.cms?from=mdr.

4. Arvind Gupta and Philip E. Auerswald, “The Ups and Downs of India’s Digital Transformation,” Harvard Business Review, May 6, 2019, https://hbr.org/2019/05/the-ups-and-downs-of-indias- digital-transformation.

5. “5 Years of Transforming India.” MyGov India, Accessed August 3, 2020, https://www.mygov.in/5years/index.html.

6. “PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi Department of Agriculture,Cooperation & Farmers Welfare Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare,” pmkisan.gov.in, Accessed August 3, 2020, https://pmkisan.gov.in/StateDist_Beneficiery.aspx.

7. PTI, “Centre Releases Rs 4431 Crore to Clear Pending Wages under MGNREGA, to Pay All Dues by April 10,” The Economic Times, March 27, 2020, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ news/economy/finance/centre-releases-rs-4431-crore-to-clear-pending-wages-under- mgnrega-to-pay-all-dues-by-april-10/articleshow/74849430.cms?from=mdr.

8. Saurabh Kumar, “How Aadhaar Plugs Leakages in PDS and LPG Subsidy Transfer,” Livemint, August 13, 2015, https://www.livemint.com/Politics/ZRbi2x5IaxrDhHU65m2gOK/How- Aadhaar-plugs-leakages-in-PDS-and-LPG-subsidy-transfer.html.

9. TV Mohandas Pai and Nisha Holla, “DBT 2.0 Model for Poverty-Free India,” The Sunday Guardian Live, April 11, 2020, https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/dbt-2-0-model-poverty-free- india.

10. PTI, “India Has Building Blocks for Successful Rollout of Digital Government Transfers: Report,” The Economic Times, April 1, 2020, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/india- has-building-blocks-for-successful-rollout-of-digital-government-transfers-report/ articleshow/74928739.cms?from=mdr.

11. Director, DBT Mission. “Direct Benefit Transfer India.” DBT. Accessed August 3, 2020, https://dbtbharat.gov.in/.

12. PTI, “Over 42 Crore Poor Received Financial Assistance of Rs 65,454 Crore under PMGKP,” The

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Economic Times, June 20, 2020, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/ policy/over-42-crore-poor-received-financial-assistance-of-rs-65454-crore-under-pmgkp/ articleshow/76483430.cms?from=mdr.

13. “Aarogya Setu Has 50 Million Users in 13 Days, Beats ‘Pokémon GO’ Record,” Times, April 15, 2020, https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/aarogya-setu-has-50-million- users-in-13-days-beats-pokemon-go-record/story-4Q25vLRuezSuzPA8jboLEL.html.

14. Prasid Banerjee, “‘Aarogya Setu Ranked Number 1 in Health and Fitness Category Daily since Launch’,” Livemint, June 25, 2020, https://www.livemint.com/technology/tech-news/aarogya- setu-ranked-number-1-in-health-and-fitness-category-daily-since-launch-app-annie- 11593104227850.html.

15. PTI, “Covid-19 Contact Tracing App Aarogya Setu Has Alerted 1.4 Lakh Users: Official,” Livemint, May 11, 2020, https://www.livemint.com/news/india/covid-19-contact-tracing-app- aarogya-setu-has-alerted-1-4-lakh-users-official/amp-11589226902816.html.

16. Tech Desk, “Aarogya Setu COVID-19 App: World Bank Praises India’s App for Contact Tracing,” , April 14, 2020, https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news- technology/aarogya-setu-app-world-bank-praises-india-contact-tracking-app-6360467/.

17. Ankit Kumar, “How Aarogya Setu Works, and How It Compares to Contact-Tracing Apps in Other Countries,” India Today, May 6, 2020, https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/ features/story/how-aarogya-setu-works-and-how-it-compares-to-contact-tracing-apps-in- other-countries-1674966-2020-05-06.

18. NITI Aayog, “National Health Stack: Strategy and Approach,” https://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/ files/document_publication/NHS-Strategy-and-Approach-Document-for-consultation.pdf

19. Indiaretailing Bureau, “E-Commerce and Contactless Payments Will See Unprecedented Push Post-COVID-19,” Indiaretailing.com, June 23, 2020, https://www.indiaretailing.com/2020/06/ 22/retail/e-commerce-and-contactless-payments-will-see-unprecedented-push-post-covid- 19/.

20. PTI, “India Facing Shortage of 6 Lakh Doctors, 20 Lakh Nurses: Study,” The Financial Express, April 14, 2019, https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/health/india-facing-shortage-of-6- lakh-doctors-20-lakh-nurses-study/1547803/.

21. Rashi Varshney, “This Startup by IIT Alumni Has Come up with a Contactless Monitoring Device to Fight Coronavirus,” YourStory.com, April 8, 2020, https://yourstory.com/2020/04/startup- iit-alumni-contactless-monitor-dozee-coronavirus.

22. Rashmi Mabiyan, “Covid-19 Lockdown 2.0: Telemedicine in India to See Continued G r o w t h - E T H e a l t h W o r l d , ” E T H e a l t h w o r l d . c o m , A p r i l 1 6 , 2 0 2 0 , https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/health-it/covid-19-lockdown-2-0- telemedicine-in-india-to-see-continued-growth/75172147.

23. Taslimarif Saiyed and Nisha Holla, “How India Can Develop Its Health Ecosystem into a Dominant, Post-Covid Economic Sector,” The Financial Express, May 27, 2020,

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https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/how-india-can-develop-its-health-ecosystem- into-a-dominant-post-covid-economic-sector/1971654/.

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